Sixteen year-old Lanny longs for independence and chafes against the rules imposed by his father.

On one of the rare occasions that his father lets him borrow the truck, Lanny goes on a fishing expedition. He comes across a "No Trespassing" line and realizes that he is on land owned by the infamous Linwood Toomey. Toomey has a reputation for impulsive violence. Rumor has it that he gauged a man's eye out in a bar fight and sliced another's face open with a broken beer bottle. But Lanny is undeterred; he figures the man is too "lazy and drunk" to walk to patrol the outskirts of his property.

On Toomey's land, Lanny discovers a crop of cannabis plants. He realizes that these plants represent an opportunity to make far more money than he did working at the Pay-Lo, from which he was recently fired for being consistently late.

Lanny returns home with five stalks of the plants, and his friend Travis arranges for him to sell it to Leonard Hamby—a man who has the reputation of someone "you didn’t want to mess with." Lanny impresses himself by negotiating for sixty dollars, and Leonard promises to double that sum if Lanny can take care to bring another batch of plants back in more pristine condition.

Leonard invites the two boys inside for a beer. As Lanny grows progressively drunker, he starts to doubt Leonard's "badass" reputation; to him, Leonard looks soft. Lanny belligerency insults Leonard's music taste, and when the man cooly defends himself, Lanny feels shamed and insecure.

Lanny goes to relieve himself. On his way back from the bathroom, he glimpses Leonard's wife reading a magazine in the bedroom. He sits on the bed and rudely propositions her. She calls for Leonard, who asks the boys to leave. He says they can come back if they bring him more plants.

Hoping to save enough money for his own truck, Lanny returns to the cannabis patch and collects more plants. Leonard pays him the agreed sum, but declines to invite him inside this time. Lanny again grows belligerent and insults the man's trailer. Leonard warns that Lanny will someday face repercussions for his arrogance.

Lanny trespasses on Toomey's property for the third time to steal yet another haul of plants. He suddenly steps into a bear trap. With his leg severely mangled, he passes in and out of consciousness.

Toomey and his son eventually come across him. Toomey admonishes Lanny for his greediness and suggests he deliberately set the trap for him. Toomey says he and his son will have to harvest all the remaining plants before calling a doctor, since they cannot have the police asking questions about why they set a trap on their land in the first place. He is certain the doctor will simply amputate Lanny's lower leg.

Lanny appreciates Toomey's way of speaking to him as an equal. Before he loses consciousness again, he thinks about speckle trout, and "how it was only when they lay gasping on the green bank moss that you realized how bright and pretty they were."